Sunday, August 6, 2017

Fringe Festival 2017: "Fainting Room"

Summary: A comic audience participatory one-woman show about the medical diagnosis of hysteria and its cures throughout the centuries.

Highlights: Brooklyn based Becca Bernard is a charming and disarming host for this at times awkward and a bit too intimate conversation (at least for this Minnesotan). She plays a number of characters in a doctor's office, including a welcoming nurse, a nervous runaway bride (with a cello), a couple of doctors, and one of the aforementioned cures. The comedy is funny and topical and feminist, and the original songs are charming and clever. But audience participation is my least favorite thing at the Fringe and in theater, so I was very happy with my choice to move from the front row to further back.

Cherry and Spoon

The sculpture "Spoonbridge and Cherry" was created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen in 1988 for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center, original site of the Guthrie Theater. I chose "Cherry and Spoon" as the name of this blog because it seems a fitting and recognizable symbol of the Minnesota cultural scene.